Primitive Mental States: Across the Lifespan

This is the first volume of an annual dedicated to the study of primitive mental states. We are drawn to and fascinated by the primitive, yet its meanings are multiple and complex. Primitive has been used synonymously with early, original, unorganized, organizing, random, deep, regressed, savage, fundamental, Dionysian, demonic, pregenital, and archetypal, among other terms. Primitive mental states are paradoxically described as highly sophisticated and deeply unsophisticated; as originating in culture or biology; as being spiritual, intrapsychic and intrasubjective. As is clear, though the meaning of primitive cannot be captured by a single definition, it does refer to something powerful, and that something is the subject of this series. With contributions from experts in many different fields, this first volume should be of interest to therapists, students of literature, and anyone interested in exploring the workings of the mind.